Debt Elimination and Credit Restoration

Depending on the type of debt you have currently will gauge the amount of steps to debt elimination. Debt elimination is a big word with different meanings.

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What words to describe this past week in the corrupt world of collections !!! ??? This week has been exciting for us. Time flies when you are having fun and celebrating. National Arbitration Forum (NAF), Mann Bracken, Deanna Richert, MN AG Lori Swanson, Accretive, first class action lawsuit in Illinois (Edelman)

We knew National Arbitration Forum (NAF) was not fair and biased, but when you read about the relationships that NAF kept hidden…it is shocking, appalling, disgusting, deplorable, outrageous, scandalous …it is beyond comprehension and to understand how this operated for years. Thank you Lori Swanson for being the first voice to shut this down.

The good news is that consumers can take action about their arbitration cases that are pending, awarded, and judgments.

Consumers, for the most part, could not do much about National Arbitration Forum because it was not truly arbitration. Also, arbitration can be intimidating. It is cost effective for junk debt buyers (collection agencies) to use arbitatration rather than getting an attorney and serving a summons to that consumer. The script has turned. Kudos to Deanna Richert for stepping out about Michael Kelly with her suit. That was the beginning of the crack in the glass snowglobe – imho. This week will have more developments about consumers, lawsuits, and class actions. Did you know that consumers are filing suits in record breaking numbers this year in 2009? Federal court.

Article resource fivemilliondots.com:

Most of 4,054 the federal consumer credit lawsuits filed so far in 2009 are Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) against Debt Collectors and debt collection law firms.

You can see for yourself at Justia.com.

If you ask me that’s a lot of consumers being abused by debt collectors using questionable collection tactics. This is quite troubling as it shows that for the most part the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorney general’s are not getting involved in consumer abuse as much as they should be.

These numbers also show that many debt collectors are willfully violating federal and state law to collect debts. I could see if there were maybe 75-100 (total) filed each month, but the numbers of lawsuits that consumers file themselves without the aid of federal and state law enforcement is quite staggering.

Maybe it is a good idea that consumer issues such as the FDCPA and FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) be taken away from the Federal Trade Commission and to a new consumer protection agency that is being currently being proposed in congress. From all outward appearances the FTC is failing US consumers in protecting them from predatory and illegal debt collection.

What’s more the $1000.00 per incident damages outlined in the FDCPA is chump-change to many of the the large US debt collection companies, hence the large number of federal lawsuits filed against them. The Fair Debt Collection Practices act needs to be beefed up and hit debt collectors hard, right in the wallet. Put some meat in the FDCPA and once a couple of large cash awards hit the debt collectors the illegal collection tactics will dry up to a trickle.

Now let’s take a look at how many Federal consumer credit lawsuits were filed against large debt collection companies and Debt Collection law firms so far in 2009.

Asset Acceptance – 226 lawsuits

Allied Interstate – 215 lawsuits

NCO Financial Systems (Group) – 205 lawsuits

Palisades Collections, LLC – 153 lawsuits

Allied Interstate Inc. – 98 Lawsuits

Client Services Inc – 65 lawsuits

Midland Funding/ Midland Credit – 65 lawsuits

Mann Bracken – 60 lawsuits

Portfolio Recovery Associates – 54 lawsuits

LVNV Funding – 46 lawsuits

MRS Associates – 38 lawsuits

United Collection Bureau (aka UCB) – 31 lawsuits

First Revenue Assurance – 26 lawsuits

Alliance One – 26 lawsuits

LTD Financial Services – 32 lawsuits

West Asset Management – 23 lawsuits

Mitchell N Kay PC – 23 lawsuits

Unifund CCR Partners – 20 lawsuits

Gerald E. Moore & Associates, P.C. – 19 lawsuits

Eskanos & Adler, PC – 13 lawsuits

Scott Lowery Law Office, P.C. – 11 lawsuits

Accounts Receivable Management – 10 lawsuits

BUREAU OF COLLECTION RECOVERY – 7 lawsuits

Allen, Lewis & Associates, Inc – 5 lawsuits

I have probably overlooked a few of the larger debt collection law firms and debt collection companies, however as you can see it not just one or two lawsuits being filed against them, it is dozens and some hundreds. Feel free to search federal civil filings at Justia.com (consumer credit lawsuits) and pull others you may have been abused by.

All these lawsuits filed against debt collectors in 2009 and in the last year the Federal Trade Commission has done nothing against any of them (so far as we know). It’s extremely sad if you ask me that consumers are being harassed and the very federal enforcement agency hasn’t done anything. No wonder debt collectors violate the law, they know that the FTC is going to do anything to them. I for one, am glad that congress is thinking of creating a new consumer protection agency and take some of the Federal Trade Commissions enforcement powers away. Like the old saying goes “Use it, or lose it” and the FTC only has themselves to blame…

NEXT LEVEL CREDIT

“Taking Your Credit to the Next Level”

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I know, I know – another blog about Mann Bracken AGAIN.

If you know of any consumer that is fighting ANY one of the collection agencies…(and arbitration)

Accretive is a family of private equity funds based in New York City that operates under the control of Cline and his associates. A number of the Accretive entities were originally organized in 1999.

Agora is a family of private equity funds based in New York City that was created by Cline and his associates through the Accretive network. The Agora entities were formed in 2007to acquire significant financial interests in the National Arbitration Forum.

Axiant is a debt collection agency in which Accretive has majority ownership and which was created by Accretive to acquire the assets of three large national debt collection law firms (Mann Bracken (based in Atlanta, Georgia), Wolpoff & Abramson (based in the District of Columbia), and Eskanos & Adler (based in California)), which eventually all merged into Mann Bracken.

Accretive, Agora, Axiant, the Forum, and Mann Bracken form a complex web of companies that compose some of the largest debt collectors and arbitrators of consumer credit card debt in the country. In 2006, the National Arbitration Forum arbitrated over 200,000 claims involving credit card and other debt issued by national banks and large corporations; in almost 60 percent of those cases, the banks, or the funds that purchased the consumer debt, were represented by Mann Bracken or Wolpoff & Abramson.

“These allegation present an incredible set of problems for consumers who are currently involved in arbitration. One suggestion I received from an attorney was to download the complete suit from the MN AG’s site. File a a stay with the NAF arbitrator based on these allegations. Make the judge involved in any confirmation hearing aware of the suit. Contact a consumer lawyer for advice and assistance. Every NAF case in the nation should be placed on hold, based on this incredible news.

We were not kidding when when named them ‘Not Always Fair’, as it appears they were not only in bed with their clients, they planned and executed a world class scam in the style of Bernie Madoff.”

New York
West Virginia
Texas
Pennsylvania
California

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Where do we begin about Palisades Collections? This collection agency is big and has a “steamroller” mentality.

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Global Credit & Collections is a collection agency. We have not heard alot about them until May 2009. This agency seems to specialize in Capital One junk debt.

GLOBAL International Inc.
300 International Drive,
PMB # 10015
Williamsville, NY
14221

We do not have alot to report about the business of Global Credit & Collections. When you receive a letter from them, always send a VOD letter to them, certified and return receipt AND mail to the New York office.

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